Projects

Report crime using the Child ALERT Hotline

Developed and commissioned by ECPAT Child ALERT, the Child ALERT Hotline was released to the public in August 2009 as part of The Body Shop campaign.

The Internet should be a powerful tool for education without fear of upsetting our children with offensive imagery.

The Child ALERT Hotline is an executable file that creates a browser plug-in to allow internet viewers to report child pornography. If a viewer inadvertently stumbles across an offensive site, he or she need only click on the Child ALERT button to report the site. The website will then disappear and the Compliance Unit of the Department of Internal Affairs are instantly notified to prevent further access to this site through their Digital Child Exploitation Filter.

Detractors of the Child ALERT Hotline have suggested that accidental stumbling across such material is minimal. The result of the reporting to date suggests otherwise.

While ECPAT Child ALERT has had minimal resources to promote the Child ALERT Hotline, already 600 sites have been reported in the past 12 months. This is clear evidence that with adequate promotion of the service, the Child ALERT Hotline is an important tool in deterring the active promotion of child Internet pornography.

Action

ECPAT Child ALERT will continue to promote the download of the Child ALERT Hotline, and we encourage all readers to take a couple of minutes to not only download the plug-in on your own computer but email the link to friends and family.

Sponsors

The photographs on this website are of models and do not depict victims of child sexual exploitation.